Large programs of manufacturing can be difficult to manage, particularly for complex products such as aircraft and automobiles that may include hundreds or thousands of parts and assemblies, and rely on hundreds of skilled technicians to manufacture, test, and ultimately deliver each aircraft. Therefore, complex schedules are developed to provide direction to the technicians on not only the task to be completed, but also a timeframe in which in the task should be completed. Once the technician is informed of an assigned task, the technician is required to search for the technical documentation necessary to complete the assigned task.
Manufacturers increasingly use digitally-based information systems for documentation. By way of example and not by way of limitation, such digitally-based information may include an endless number of aircraft maintenance manuals, parts catalogs and other documentation. For example, a company may have a library that includes many thousands of documents in a digital format. However, there may be no comprehensive index into the subject matter of the documentation and each document may be stored in independently accessible areas such that a manual search and retrieval of the documentation required to complete a work task becomes an extremely cumbersome and time-consuming task. This is a deficiency which detracts from the technicians allotted timeframe to actually complete the assigned task.
Additionally, current solutions record the time required to perform assembly operations inaccurately. The present system does not provide real-time updates in cases where an assigned task cannot be performed or assistance is required to perform the assigned task. For example, in one instance, a technician may be unable to complete an assigned task such as mounting a component to an aircraft, and a subsequent technician may be assigned a task to electrically connect the component, followed by another technician assigned to test the component, such that the inability to perform one assigned task may result in a cascade effect that causes other technicians to not be able to perform their assigned task. As a result, the technician's time is not being used effectively during the fabrication process as they are often left idle during this time period, and the time required to fabricate an aircraft may subsequently be increased.
Therefore, a need exist for a system that provides comprehensive task information and scheduling at the point of use of a technician during a manufacturing process in which the information is updated in real time to account for any instances that may alter a technicians ability to complete an assigned task.